Gas utility companies expend countless resources ensuring that the gas services remain present and are safely maintained for their customers. Pipe systems used for the transmission and distribution of natural gas often experience intrusion of water. This is particularly common in gas mains operating at low pressures—e.g., pipe systems pressurized to about one pound per square inch (psi) or less—due to the lack of sufficient pressure to stop water from entering the main through cracks, leaking service connections, and other leaking pipe features. Although most common in low pressure pipelines, this problem occurs in higher pressure pipelines as well. Water can fill the entire interior area of the pipe, forming a “slug” or “pocket”, and can restrict service to large groups of customers, or travel down the service lines and damage end user equipment. Once a service has been restricted, in order to turn it back on, the utility company must locate and remove the water blockage from the main, gain access into each customer's home and check the integrity of the entire line prior to reinstating gas service.
Once water enters a main it is difficult to remove. In order to remove water from the mains, utility companies may excavate the ground to expose the pipe and tap a hole in the main to determine if water is present at the location of the excavation. If water is present, additional holes are tapped to determine the extent of the water located in the main. Once the extent is determined, a vacuum truck, designed to pump and store water, may be used to evacuate the mains via one of the tapped holes. Additional tapped holes may be necessary to evacuate all of the water if the lowest point in the pipe has not been exposed during excavation.
Another approach for water removal involves the utilization of a camera which is inserted into the main via one of the tapped holes. A camera provides a better means to locate the water in the pipe. Once the water is located using the camera, a second hole is tapped and a tube is fed into the second hole. The camera remains in the main and the tube is pushed to the camera. The tube is used to evacuate whatever water comes in contact with the end of the tube. Although this may be an improvement to operating blind, it has inherent, and rather severe, limitations. For example, even when using a camera, it can be extremely difficult for operators to accurately locate and place the tube directly in the water. It is also a matter of trial and error, and often luck, to position the end of the tube in the location that will yield the most effective pumping. The tube, which may be made of a light polymer tends to curl before it reaches the water, and therefore, even if the operator is fortunate enough to locate the tube at or near the site of the water incursion, the end of the tube may not be on the bottom of the pipe, or even in contact with the water. Moreover, making the second hole for the tube is time consuming and an additional expense. Indeed, the entire process of tapping a hole and inserting a camera to locate the water, tapping a second hole, inserting the tube, and finally removing the water—assuming the tube can be properly positioned—is time consuming and inefficient. Therefore, a need exists for a system to overcome these and other problems associated with existing devices.